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December 16, 1998
Tom Glaze
Associate Justice
Supreme Court of Arkansas
625 Marshall Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201
RE: Advisory Opinion # 98-06
Dear Justice Glaze:
Your letter asks whether an appellate judge may sit on a jury. We
find nothing in the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct or in advisory opinions from other
states that would place any limitation on a judge serving as a juror. Canon 2(B) requires
a judge to Abe sensitive to possible abuse of the prestige of office. But a judge, sitting
as a juror, would not be seeking to advance his private interests.
You further ask whether an appellate judge would be required to
disqualify himself from all cases appealed from the jury panel. Matters of
disqualification are left to the judgment and discretion of the judge. Likewise, this
Committee finds no support for the position that the impartiality of an appellate judge
might reasonably be questioned merely because the judge had been a member of a jury panel.
Sincerely,
Howard W. Brill
For the Committee |
